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A rendering of a proposed development at 1052, 1060 and 1064 St. Laurent Blvd. Image credit: Fotenn

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History Ottawa is still under construction on Rideau Street. Photo by Mia Jensen.

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A rendering of a common space at a Toboggan Flats building. Photo supplied by Robert Barnard.

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Brytech's Colour Teller assistive care device is one of the many projects in Design 1st's portfolio. Photo from Design 1st's website.

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Insider Only Techopia, Top Stories

Rendering of a development proposal from Minto for 178-200 Isabella St. Photo credit: Project1 Studio

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Deborah Lehmann is president and CEO of the Ottawa Cancer Foundation. Photo credit: Ottawa Cancer Foundation

From vet clinics to cancer care, how two Ottawa charities are managing a changing world

Ottawa, Insider Only Top Stories

Sutcliffe and Hillier breakfast

New task force eyes ‘huge opportunity’ to make Ottawa-Gatineau a defence-tech hub

Insider Only Defence and Security, Ottawa, Top Stories

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Video

Ottawa’s AI scene is evolving. Early momentum was created by companies such as Solink, founded by Mike Matta, which applied computer vision to retail analytics, and Ranovus, led by Hany Mussad, which develops the optical hardware necessary for high-capacity AI data centres. Subsequent growth was driven by firms such as MindBridge, co-founded by Solon Angel and Eli Fathi, and BluWave-ai, led by Devashish Paul, which targeted specific industrial applications in financial auditing and energy grid management.

A new AI player is garnering international attention. Backboard.io is developing a memory-native API designed to manage long-term context in large language models. In January 2026, the company closed a pre-seed funding round led by Mistral Venture Partners, with participation from N49P, Garage Capital, and Developer Capital.

In this episode of Techopia Live, OBJ publisher Michael Curran speaks to Rob Imbeault, the founder and CEO of Backboard.io. Having already co-founded tech unicorn Assent, Imbeault is now in the CEO seat and predicting big things to come.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:56 Introducing Rob Imbeault
14:00 Sponsor Segment
22:27 Building a Better Working World
24:03 Techopia Sponsors
24:43 Closing and What’s Ahead at OBJ

For more on Ottawa’s tech and innovation scene, visit https://obj.ca/techopia.

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Techopia Live: Imbeault is back with Backboard.io | Episode 295

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